Argumentative Logic and Forms of Dialogism in Epistolary Discourse

Abstract

The present work examines certain peculiarities of epistolary discourse in fiction, approached through argumentative logic and forms of dialogism. The relationship among dialogism, polyphony, and intertextuality is also discussed. Although many conferences and studies have focused on this problem, only a few books have been written on the relationship among these three phenomena. The existence of discourse depends on these phenomena. The work considers Colette’s novel La Vagabonde, which is marked by a number of distinctive stylistic features. The narration is given in the first person. A different genre of discourse – the epistle – appears in the third part of the novel, though not in a fully developed form. The narrator, presented as a prototype of the author, includes quotations from her letter. The responses of the addressee can be discerned by reading the letters of Renée Néré.